288 TiJE Book of the Horse. 



knee downwards falling straight, and moving as little as possible ; the rise and fall to escape 

 bumping just as little as the action of the horse will allow. Some horses, and particularly 

 English horses, arc much more impressive in their trot than others. The elbows should be 

 close without clinging to the sides of the rider, and the snaffle rein should be held firmly, at 

 the proper length, in each hand, and not be allowed to slip a hair's-breadth as long as the 

 trotting continues ; in this respect differing from the mode of regulating the reins in the 

 canter or gallop. In the trot the rider appears to support the horse on the snafifle bit ; of 

 course he does not do so, but the well-trained horse relies on the rider to hold him to that 

 pace. Horses may be trained to trot with a loose rein (the fastest trotter I ever possessed 

 did this), and also to slacken their pace and halt as soon as the rider with a soothing word sits 

 down and loosens the reins. 



Perhaps more vulgarity is displayed in trotting than in any other pace by hard riders of 

 the sporting publican class, their admirers and imitators. It is a pace in which, with a free 

 goer, it is very easy to acquire bad habits. 



On a really good trotter it is, for a man, one of the most pleasant and healthy forms of 

 exercise. So thought Lord Palmerston, who might often be met, in his seventieth year, going 

 down the Green Park from Constitution Hill, or by Birdcage Walk, to the House of Commons, 

 on a hot summer's day, trotting at the rate of twelve miles an hour. "Twice in 1S64, Lord 

 Palmerston, being then in his eightieth year, rode over from Broadlands to the training stables 

 at Littleton, to see his horses gallop on Winchester race-course — starting at nine o'clock 

 in the morning and not getting back until two o'clock. It was his maxim that ' no other 

 abstinence would make up for abstinence from exercise.' No member ever trotted harder 

 with his own hand, and his rule was daily horse exercise." If George Grote, the historian 

 of Greece, had not given up the horse exercise which for a long period was his favourite 

 out-door amusement, his life and valuable literary labours might have been prolonged many 

 years. 



The young rider should bear in mind that there is a limit to the speed of a hack's trot — 

 it may be at the rate of eight miles, ten miles, twelve miles, or fourteen miles an hour, 

 within the limits of that pace he will travel farther, more safely, and with less fatigue to his 

 horse, than at a canter; but pressed up to or beyond the limits of your horse's trotting powers, 

 it becomes most exhausting, as any one may learn by trying to keep up a fair toe-and-heel 

 walk with a pedestrian who is two miles an hour better than himself The man who could 

 walk all day at about three miles an hour would be very soon pumped out in trying to walk 

 six miles in one hour. It is also dangerous, because, at full stretch, the horse on making a 

 mistake has little chance of recovering his balance. Tightly and firmly held, at about eight 

 or ten miles an hour, or whatever be the pace of the slowest of the party's horse on a fair 

 road, trotting is a very conversational pace. Nothing is in such bad taste as for the owner 

 of the fastest walker or trotter to be continually in front of a riding party. 



Neither should horses be allowed to break from one pace to another ; but a considerate 

 horseman returning home or going to cover will do well to break now and then into a hand- 

 gallop rather than strain his horse's sinews and joints, and vex his temper, in a vain attempt 

 to keep up with some one who prides himself on a trotter of exceptional powers. 



Such a wild goer as the one in the illustration at page 270 may be confided to a groom, 

 ready to ride anything, but certainly is not in his place as a gentleman's hack or in the Park ; 

 although, perhaps, with patience and good handling, he may in a few months, be brought to 

 more regular and less fatiguing paces. 



